When the 2011-12 fiscal year began in July, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic programs saw a boost in their recruiting budgets.
None of the teams are now rolling in cash – there will be no scouting trips via private plane like some of their fellow coaches at big-budget programs – but athletic director Rick Hart said the recruiting budgets have mostly been restored to levels similar to their Southern Conference rivals.
“It’s an important area for us, and we needed to go back and restore some of the funding that had been removed the past several years,” Hart said.
As the athletic department’s budget was slashed again and again in recent years, one of the few areas where cuts could continue to be made was in recruiting.
Scholarships and salaries make up two-thirds of the athletic department budget, Hart said, and of the final third there were a lot of unavoidable expenses, such as travel and security.